By Halimah Olamide and David Orji
Many Nigerians are lamenting the scarcity of cash as Christmas celebration draws nearer on Friday. Monday December 25 is Christmas day with many eyeing purchases and other financial activities requiring cash.
However, banks have failed to satisfy customers’ demand for cash as queues have continued to appear in all of them. Operators of Point of Sales (POS) kiosks who are said to be making brisk businesses out of the scarcity of cash are also limiting the amount of cash they can pay a customer saying they too are unable to withdraw large sums of money at the banks.
A correspondent of the NPO Reports, who attempted to withdraw a sum of N30,000 from a POS operator located on Ajayi Road, Ogba Lagos on Friday was told by the operator she could only afford N10,000.
In front of Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos, another correspondent of NPO Reports, who was surveying the situation was told to come back three hours later to be able to withdraw N5,000.
One of the POS operators in front of the College also explained to our correspondent that she had not been able to get more thabn N250,000 at once from her bank since last week saying she had needed to get as much as N1,800,000 to continue in business.
“We dont know what has changed. This was the same thing we experienced last year and we were all shouting Emefiele, Emefiele, Buhari etc. Now, Emefiele has been detained and Baba Buhari has gone back to his village.
Why are we facing the same problem,” she demanded Reports from Abuja shows that the cash scarcity has hit harder especially because of those travelling for Christmas and in need of cash.
At the Jabbi Park in the FCT, our correspondent observed that many lamented the cash crunch as purchases were limited especially where it has to do with places where transfers are not accepted and POS are not available.
On Thursday, the Central Bank of Nigeria warned POS operators and money deposit banks to desist from hoarding cash threatening to sanction anyone caught. The bank had also sent out forms to conduct a survey where it hoped to collate opinions of Nigerians over the scarcity of the Naira in their respective areas of the country.
A statement by the acting director of communication and public relations of the apex bank Sidi Ali said, “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to alleged cases of collusion between some Deposit Money Banks and Point-Of-Sale operators affecting the availability of cash and disrupting the seamless circulation of the Naira.”